Recycling plasterboard waste from refurbishment sites
Jan 06 - Oct 06Recovering and recycling plasterboard waste from commercial refurbishment sites is economically and practically viable.
This report details the trials undertaken, and provides recommendations for refurbishment contractors and waste management companies.
Background
Plasterboard recycling systems currently available were developed primarily for construction sites. They use either segregated skips managed through waste management companies or bag based take-back schemes managed by plasterboard manufacturers. Such systems work extremely effectively for large sites or where high volumes of waste are generated.
Commercial refurbishment sites have particular constraints which make these recycling systems less effective. These include space being restricted so preventing use of skips, projects being of short timescale, and sites being in partly occupied buildings.
The aim of this study was to develop and demonstrate the viability of an alternative system for these small and medium sized sites.
The 17 week trial recovered waste plasterboard from 13 office refurbishment sites in central London. The “mosquito fleet” system was mainly used, which is used extensively in North America. The system entails small collection vehicles frequently collecting the waste plasterboard (from both the strip-out and fit-out stages of work) from the sites and delivering it to a waste transfer station. There it is bulked-up prior to transfer to a plasterboard recycler.
The results of the trials were extremely positive and showed that by making small changes to existing site practices the majority of waste plasterboard generated - such as wall partitions and ceilings - could be recovered for recycling. At the waste transfer station only twenty tonnes per week needed to be bulked for the costs for recycling to be comparable to mixed landfill disposal.
Details
Partners involved with this project were:-
Oakdene Hollins
Overbury
R C Interiors
New West Gypsum Recycling (UK)
Plasterboard Recycling UK
Gypsum Recycling UK
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